Jeena of the Zerg
by Tigris-ISA
Summary: The Zerg have come to Nanairo and have captured Jeena! What will Rallen do? Some RallJeen in later chapters.
1. The Abduction

_Awaken, my child, and embrace the glory that I your re-birthright. Know that I am the Queen of Blades, the eternal will of the swarm, and you have been remade to serve me._

"Yes, my queen," replied the new infested human. The memories of her previous life were hidden deep inside of her, just as Kerrigan's had been. "What are my first orders?"

_Good, you are not only willing to serve, but you also wish to serve. This may prove useful for you. Your first orders are simply to set up a hive cluster on this planet. Once you have achieved this goal, proceed to the inhabited planets. We will have these Terrans in the palms of our hands before long. Now go, my princess._

"Yes, my queen," the recently infested girl said, turning to walk towards a nearby sinkhole.

Meanwhile, on the human planet known as Kollin:

"Ahhhhhhh!" a red-haired boy shouted as he lurched upright in his bed. He looked around, remembering that he was in the Medical wing of headquarters. He had had another nightmare about her. "Jeena..."

Rallen stood up and slowly walked across the room to the washing station. Looking in the mirror, he realized that he had neglected shaving due to his state of depression combined with his injury.

"What the hell kinda krawl were those?" Rallen asked himself as he laid back on the medical cot.

_FLASHBACK_

Rallen and Jeena had been together for nearly two years (Kollin standard time), and it seemed like a good day for their 245th date (he had been keeping track).

"Hey Jeena," Rllen asked as they passed each other in the NPP headquarters' halls, "You wanna go sight-seeing on Daichi later?"

Jeena had gotten used to Rallen asking her out at random after about the tenth date, so she simply replied with a "sure" before walking off towards fossil lab minor. She heard an enthusiastic 'yessss!' behind her as she walked off.

A little before noon, Rallen and Jeena met at their cruiser in front of HQ and greeted each other with a quick hug before walking into their ship.

"Even though it's been five years since I met you, it doesn't seem like your flying's changed a bit," Jeena joked as Rallen pulled off less than practical maneuvers just outside of Daichi's gravitational pull.

"Not true!" Rallen objected with a broad smile. "I have learned a few new tricks since then."

Once they landed on the surface of Daichi, Rallen and Jeena immediately ran to the giant stone arch that led to Tabletop Mountain. This would be their fourth time up in that arch. Every time they went there, they wished it could last forever.

"Race ya to the top!" Rallen shouted as he excitedly started climbing. He didn't look back down after that.

"I beat you," Jeena stated bluntly. She had a smug smile on her face.

"Okay, give it back," Rallen said in exasperation. How many times will she do this?

"Give what back?" Jeena said, her smile broadening.

"The prizmod," Rallen couldn't help but smile back.

"Oh, that. If you want it, you're going to have to get it from me," Jeena said, holding out the small device.

"Okay," Rallen replied with is wide grin. "Iku ze!"

He leapt at her and she let him wrap his arms around her. "You're gonna have to try harder than that!" she said, switching hands.

Suddenly, something hit Rallen in the arm, glancing off of his uniform's shoulder plate. Another of the objects came and hit him in the arm just below the armor. Rallen screamed in pain.

"Rallen!" Jeena shouted as she jumped out of his arms. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Ah... I-I'm fine," He said as he looked down towards the ground. "What are those things?"

Standing in front of the arch were three, very odd creatures. They had elongated bodies covered in spikes. At the front ends of these bodies were ribcage like structures that supported two arms with three large claws where fingers should be. The bodies extended slightly upward from these structures where heads with enormous frills were stationed.

Rallen and Jeena observed as one of the creatures expanded its frill and sent a projectile towards them. They both dodged the missile easily.

"Those aren't krawl, are they?" Jeena asked in horror.

"Impossible," Rallen replied, though he wasn't as sure as he sounded. "The krawl haven't shown up since we defeated Krux." A volley of shots hurtled towards Jeena.

"Rallen!" Jeena shouted as her partner leapt in front of the projectiles. They lodged themselves in Rallen's arm and side. Rallen let out a pained gasp.

"Jeena, the prizmod," he muttered as he extended his good arm towards her. Jeena locked the device into its place on his armor.

Rallen leapt from the high arch as he brought out Aobasar, who safely lowered Rallen onto the ground. The great bird then flapped its wings, sending a dust devil towards the strange krawl. This did little to no damage to the three creatures who merely shrugged off the wind and advanced towards their new target.

"Must be strong against sky," Rallen commented under his breath as he switched Aobasar for Dongiga. "Let's see how they like earth!"

Dongiga teleported to the location of the three krawl and began stomping his feet. This sent chunks of dirt flying everywhere. These also did little damage to the creatures, who began using their claws to scratch away at the Spectrobe's tough skin.

"Get back!" Rallen called, causing Dongiga to teleport to his side. "If sky and earth don't affect them, then I'll just have to find out what does."

Spikanor was at his side in an instant. The large, spiny spectrobe did not growl as he usually did at the sight of krawl, nor did he automatically attack, but at Rallen's command, he immediately lashed out his claws and cracked the hard shell of one of the creatures.

The creature's two companions, who were slightly farther away, shot their pointe projectiles at Spikan. One of the darts glanced off of his claws, but the other found its target in his elbow. Spikan howled in pain and leapt at the attacker. His mace-like tail found its way into the creature's soft stomach flesh.

"Rallen!" Jeena cried from the top of the stone arch, causing Rallen to turn suddenly from the battle bfore him. A flying beast with six claws hanging down below it had grabbed Jeena by her jacket and was carrying her away.

"Jeena!" Rallen cried back as if calling her name would save her from this situation.

He looked back and realized that Spikan had finished off the krawl. He immediately called Aobasar back out and tried to fly after Jeena's captor, but a huge wave of flying creatures, probably more krawl, flew into the sky around him and fired more sharp projectiles at him. He did not give up.

Aobasar flew directly towards the winged krawl and tried to slash through them with its wings. Rallen had to use his left hand to hold out his lance as they approached. They had not killed more than twenty before Aobasar was defeated. Rallen then passed out as he fell nearly four hundred feet towards the surface of Daichi.

Someone, or something, had caught Rallen before he hit the ground.

Back at HQ (still flashback)

A doctor was studying the blades that had been lodged in Rallen's shoulder only minutes before.

"Very peculiar," the doctor said as she turned a knob on the microscope. "This is not like any krawl we have heard of before."

Commander Grant, who Rallen had not noticed until now, spoke up, "how so?"

"The first concerning factor is that krawl projectiles are not physical. They are meant to destroy themselves on contact with their target. Of course, this could easily be explained," the doctor pointed out. "The second confusing thing is this poison on the tip. It's constructed so that, even if it pierced the heart of the opponent, it would not kill them unless they had taken significant prior damage. The most concerning factor of all was the amount of blood this boy was covered in when he came here. There is absolutely no way it was all his blood, and there have been no reports of mass murder. We can only assume that this is krawl blood."

"But the krawl don't bleed," Commander Grant pointed out.

"Precisely," the doctor said with a grim look. "I believe there is a new threat to Nanairo."

"Jeena..." Rallen whispered as he slowly got up. He tried to support himself on his right arm but collapsed when the pain surged up to his shoulder. "What happened?"

"You had a nasty run-in with the krawl, you need to get some rest," the Commander said to the drowsy cadet. Rallen accepted this and drifted back to sleep. The Commander then left the doctor to her studies and headed towards his office.

_FLASHBACK ENDS_

"Jeena, I'm sorry," Rallen said as he curled up into another state of depression before going back to sleep.

So, what do you think? I've wanted to try this for a while. I don't quite know why, but I always think that all video games, movies, books, etc. that take place in places other than Earth are happening at the same time. I decided that it's about time for Starcraft to find its way to Spectrobes.

I don't own Spectrobes, Starcraft, or any of the characters (with the exceptions of the doctor and the Princess of Blades _concept_)


	2. Princess of Blades

_Jeena's POV_

I do not obey her because I have to. I do so because I want to. Why should I not wish to serve her when we have the same goal in mind? I am the Princess of Blades; I have my own will and am free to defy the Queen. I simply do not wish to.

"The hatchery has morphed," an advisory queen reported to me. "The drones have discovered large amounts of minerals at the bottom of these caves, and the rotting biomaterial is rich in Vespene."

"Good, this will allow me to conduct my experiments with great ease. I want a spawning pool and two Extractors up before the Queen of Blades comes to check up on us," I explained to the queen.

"As you wish, Princess," the queen replied in its odd hiss.

I then returned to my makeshift thrown constructed of the dead fungus found in the deeper bowels of the planet's cave system. I was continually distracted by plans for the zerg. Images of strange creatures popped into my head every so often and inspired another new weapon concept.

"What is distracting you so?" a melodic voice asked from behind me. "Do I sense hesitance? You know this is not a good quality in a leader. You must be quick-thinking, brave, even bull-headed when it is necessary. You must never hesitate to act."

"I am simply pondering this strange planet," I lied. I did not yet want her to know of my plans. "It is so unlike the memories I have of Char. What is Char like now?"

"Char grows and decays, just as all planets do, yet it thrives as well," she explained. "Rather than dwelling on what we cannot see, perhaps we should focus on the task at hand. What have your queens been doing?"

"See for yourself," I said, perhaps too confidently, as I connected our psionic vision to that of the overlord network in the caves below us. "I have morphed several Extractors and even a Spawning Pool. I plan to have the Hydralisk Den ready in a matter of hours. Then the Spires shall rise to fill these caverns."

"Princess," a queen said as it turned towards the overlord, "should we begin the hatchery's transformation now?"

"No, morph more drones until our overlords are straining to keep track of them, then morph two more overlords and await orders," I quickly replied. This action received a not of approval from the Queen.

"Well said, my Princess," she said in a tone of voce that sent a warm chill down my spine. "You may yet become a great leader for the Swarm." She then left my chamber and returned to our fleet above the planet.

Hours later, I awoke from a deep slumber and checked on my hive cluster.

"Princess, are we now ready to morph a Lair?" a queen asked impatiently.

"Yes, and morph another hatchery closer to the mineral fields; our income is far too low," I replied. "Also, a Hydralisk Den would be a smart decision... make it two."

"Two Hydralisk Dens?" another queen asked in an amused tone. "What use have we with the second?"

"Do not question me, just do as I instruct!" I shouted at the two of them. "I will be coming down to check on your progress shortly." I thought for a while before demanding more overlords and a few zerglings by the time I arrive.

I then cut the psionic connection between them and me. I had no reason to listen to their babble. I must now contemplate my actions before I perform them.

"I will need to use the Vespene and minerals we have collected thus far to conduct a series of tests on this Den," I explained to the queen who was inside the Hydralisk Den. "I believe I can improve on the hydralisks' original design." These words were met with a simple gesture of understanding before the queen exited.

A hydralisk that had recently been hatched at the Lair entered the Den. I felt my muscles grow tense at the sight of this creature. For some unexplainable reason, hydralisks make me incredibly uneasy. My Queen tells me this is because of a weakness in my will.

The hydralisk lowered its head to the level at which I could easily reach it. I used my claws carefully cut away the beast's large cranial plate as to get to the important organs.

"Most of the Vespene we spend on these creatures is used in the poison in their projectiles and in their elastic membranes," I said to myself as I examined the internal organs of a hydralisk's head. "If I were to eliminate the need for elastic membranes, I could cut the Vespene we use in half. Also, if I redirect the vespene holding up the head into the weapon and remove the solid projectiles, I can lower the mineral cost as well."

I tried collapsing the hydralisk's body so that it had to slither, completely flat against the ground. I then removed the organ that produces the solid spines that the hydralisk fires.

I left the Den and morphed a few of the larva into these new creatures that I called fizzralisks. This name came from the sound that the creature's acid projectile vomit made when it hit a target. When they hatched, I realized that I had done something wrong. The creatures that emerged from the morph eggs were unable to slither and had difficulty firing their weapons through the small hole in their forehead.

Looking back at the edited Den, I realized that the structure itself had changed to accommodate the new structure of the creatures. The opening at the front of the structure was wider than it was before, and the claws that usually hung over it had shrunken into its back. I decided I should kill the failures and retry.

"Perhaps I should go back to the creatures that I keep seeing in my head..." I suggested to myself. I thought back to the images of the odd creatures I had been daydreaming about. I saw a large, hard-shelled creature with a face covered in claws. It fired a red projectile from its elongated face.

Since I'd already abandoned the projectiles, I decided to create a creature similar to this large red creature with acidic projectile vomit rather than glowing red projectiles.

Several failed attempts later, I came to the successful idea. It's wing cases had been converted into vertical claws above its back that could be used if the enemy got too close. The creatures had stronger shells than the hydralisks and could survive against stronger opponents. Unfortunately, they couldn't fire at air units due to their low stance.

I stepped back, once again, to observe the altered Hydralisk Den. The frontal structure had been morphed into a large web that was shaped spherically. Behind this web was a set of four claws. The entire structure seemed to pulsate like a heart.

"You have done well," I heard my favorite voice behind me. "I would never expect you to be able to create such a beauteous creature is only a day. What do you call these?"

I was compelled to say 'Vilanox' for some odd reason, but instead I came up with a simpler name. "I call them Roaches, and this structure is a Roach Warren."

"Intriguing," she said to me absent-mindedly. "I hope you come up with similar ideas for our Spires. The Guardians seem to be more trouble than they're worth."

And so I brought this life upon myself. For the past few days I have been doing nothing but creating new zerg. It will all pay off when we crush the weak terrans in this system.

This is a corny chapter! There, I said it.

Please don't flame! Helions rule, but only if you're the driver.

I hope you people liked this chapter. It felt a little awkward as I wrote this because of how the time lapses contradicted each other. I just wanted to tell what it was the Zerg (and Jeena) are doing while Rallen recovers.

Imagine that this story is taking place between Brood War and Wings of Liberty, and it takes place after Spectrobes: Origins. I know the Zerg were dormant during this time, but bear with me.

I don't own Spectrobes or Starcraft. I only own the _concept_ for the Princess of Blades.


	3. Headquarters

_Commander Grant's POV_

After seeing the state Rallen was in, I decided against explaining the real situation. It would be too much for him at this moment. Instead I simply told him to get some rest. After this I decided to return to the strategic conferences and calculations room.

"What was Rallen doing at the time of the krawl attack?" I asked the officers in attendance of the meeting. There were also a few communication screens online for those who could not make it.

"He was on Daichi, Sir, and he wasn't alone," a highly ranked cadet reported. "He and Jeena left from headquarters' front dock at eleven thirty-four in their patrol cruiser. We found the cruiser still at one of Daichi's landing zones."

"Why were they on Daichi to begin with?" the large chief engineer asked skeptically.

"Rallen and Jeena aren't just buisiness partners," I explained, "let's leave it at that."

I turned to the biologists on hand before continuing. "Have your teams run any diagnostics on the blood Rallen was covered in? Doctor Senklar thinks it may be something other than krawl."

"We have run several tests and can confirm that these are no ordinary krawl, and we're not completely sure whether or not they're krawl to begin with. Senklar may be right about this," a tall scientist explained. "We have formed some interesting theories about these krawl, though, but we would need to examine some spectrobe genetic material before we can say for sure."

"On it," Professor Kate said through the video communicator. "Just name a species."

"Bring up any flying spectrobe that uses wings for upward thrust," another of the biologists requested. "preferably not in the aoi family."

"Kugaster genome on screen... now," Professor Kate said as the data uploaded. The scientists then pulled up a holo-screen with the genetic structure of the krawl. I stared intently at the segments of code that were being displayed. I saw a similarity in the two DNA strands.

"Look!" a short, bald man shouted while pointing at a section on his screen. "Both these krawl and the spectrobe share the ability to fly, but the krawl's wing strength is increased to the point that the creatures can exit the atmosphere and travel through the vacuum of space."

"Wouldn't this kill a normal red-blooded organism?" I asked with growing curiosity that I was not willing to show.

"Yes, but the genetic structure in these creatures does not require an excess of oxygen to survive. These krawl need no vortexes to travel between planets," the short scientist explained.

Everybody in the room went silent at this. We spent a few minutes contemplating these stronger krawl... if they even were krawl. We could be dealing with a completely new threat.

"Isn't anobody curious as to why Rallen returned alone and without his cruiser?" Professor Wright shouted in frustration. "There are no signs of Jeena anywhere! The only thing I've found is a journal and a navigational watch in the valley down here."

"Yes, I suppose it is concerning that one cadet returns covered in blood while the other remains missing..." I said calmly. "Are there any signs of a fight in your location?"

"I found several empty shells. Some of them were sunken into the ground, and when I dug them up and examined their weight, I determined that they had fallen approximately four hundred feet to be buried so deep," Wright explained. "To kill something that high up, Rallen would have had to be at least that high off the ground."

"That answers your second question, doesn't it?" another cadet said matter-of-factly. "Rallen was obviously brought back here by one of those creatures. Just because Rallen decided to attack them, doesn't mean that they're hostile."

"Good point," the tall biologist responded. "Perhaps they carried Jeena off as well. If this is so, she should show up soon."

"I have a sneaking suspicion that your inductive reasoning is far from the truth," I stated. "If both Rallen and Jeena had been carried off by the creatures, wouldn't they have both been dropped off her around the same time?"

"Will we ever know exactly what happened?" Kate asked sadly. This caused us all to get quiet again.

"All we can do is continue our efforts to find and neutralize this enemy before it gets to us as well as our efforts to find Jeena. I will deliver the bad news to Rallen when he seems ready to think with both of his brain cells," I explained with an internal smile. "Until we have made progress, meeting adjourned."

One week later...

_Rallen's POV_

"And that's all we can find," The Commander finished explaining to me. All that they had found was a journal and a watch.

"Have you looked inside the journal?" I asked as I sadly curled up in the medical bed again.

"Only a few pages, but Professor Kate advised me not to read too far into Jeena's journal. I'm under the impression she wants you to investigate it," The Commander stated as he placed a hardcover book on the table next to my cot. "I can see that you'd prefer to be left alone with your thoughts. Report to my office when you can."

I picked up Jeena's journal. Was I really going to read over all of the past few years from Jeena's point of view?...

I decided against it, as it would probably just be a hundred pages of her complaining about my recklessness. After that it would just be some sort of confused daze about her feelings.

I found myself drifting back to sleep, but this wasn't the dark, dreamless sleep of the nights before. This time I dreamt of something that truly terrified me.

_DREAM_

"The armies have formed, what shall we do now?" said a humanoid figure with a ribcage covering her chest. She was covered in skeletal plates of armor, and her skin was an odd shade of green.

"You and your scouting party are to go towards the nearest inhabited planet and kill all who get in your way. I want a map of the terrain and a thorough description of all biological aspects," A taller figure said in a hiss. This creature had more plates all over her body and no ribcage covering her well-endowed chest. She also had a strange pair of skeletal wings protruding from behind her. Unlike the first figure, this person had crimson skin.

"As you wish, Kerrigan," the first person said with a strangely familiar smile.

Rallen's vision then zoomed out to a broader view of the krawl force. The number of creatures was staggering. The ground itself of the familiar planet looked as though it was alive.

The short figure and a group of the krawl were then sucked up into several large, flying things similar to the one that had carried off Jeena. The flying creatures then moved out of Rallen's vision as it began to fade to blackness.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a familiar form appeared. It was a person curled into a ball. He or she was crying.

Rallen then found that he had taken a "physical" form within this dreamscape. He moved towards the person. When he was at the person's side he finally realized who it was.

"Jeena...?" He asked tentatively.

"Rallen? Why?" She said, looking up at him with her tearstained face. "Why didb't you save me? Why weren't you there when I needed you most?" She screamed this last question at him with confused rage in her face. "Why, Rallen?"

"J-Jeena, I... I tried, I really did, but-" Rallen was cut off my a mature, female laugh.

"You let her down, kid," A tall woman with red hair and a strange white suit said. "There's no room for error in this war, and you just slipped up. Jeena doesn't need someone who will let her down at the moment a situation gets to be too much. She needs someone who will always help her when she needs it. She needs me. Don't even try to convince her otherwise."

"W-who are you?" Rallen stuttered at this newcomer.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The woman replied with a grin. She then turned to face Jeena, "come, Princess. There's work to be done."

As the woman walked off with Jeena at her side, Rallen tried to run after them, but this only seemed to make them recede faster into the growing darkness around him.

_Rallen._

Who was this woman? What did she have to do with Jeena's disappearance?

_Rallen!_

How did this dream connect with the first he had had?

_Rallen!_

Was this Jeena's voice he heard calling to him?

_DREAM ENDS_

"Rallen! Wake up!" Commander Grant shouted at the sleeping cadet.

Rallen's eyes shot open as he realized he was being called by a superior officer, rather than by his partner.

"Yes, Sir," Rallen said as he shot upright and saluted.

"For a moment there I thought he was dead," Webster said from behind the Commander.

Ignoring the old museum curator, Commander Grant addressed Rallen. "We have reports of more of the strange krawl on Ziba's moons. Unfortunately, at the rate the krawl are multiplying only one of the moons can be saved. Akaboshi is the home an important mineral research facility, but Aoboshi is home to an important spectrobe research facility. It is entirely up to you to decide which moon you save, but keep in mind the consequences of each."

"I'll have to decide on my way there," Rallen replied solemnly. It was apparent that he didn't want to go to Akaboshi or Aoboshi, that he wanted simply to lay in his present state until the problems solved themselves. If they didn't solve themselves, then he'd simply leave this world knowing he'd failed.

"A one-man ship is waiting for you in your usual dock," Commander Grant said before turning to leave. Webster hovered in place for a moment before driving his little craft out the door.

Rallen sighed as he slowly got to his feet. He decided that he really didn't have any other choice. He had to go.

This chapter feels a little overdone for some reason... Oh well, at least it sounds good in _my _head.

I don't own Spectrobes or any of its characters, nor do I own the mysterious redhead. (The first person to guess who that is gets absolutely nothing... mostly because I said her name in the story...)

Rate and Review Please!


	4. Realization

_Rallen's POV_

The ship was uncomfortably small. It had a single seat in the direct middle of the craft, which had panels for controlling every aspect of the ship stationed around it. I was having a hard time imagining anyone driving this ship.

"Well, Komainu," I said to the little spectrobe who I had let out of the prizmod a while ago, "it may not be very big, but at least it's a ship."

As soon as I found the most comfortable way to fit into the cockpit, I began the short journey to Ziba. As soon as I arrived, I noticed them.

Huge, purple masses of what I assumed was krawl were sending dark meteorites towards Ziba's moons. After flying closer to Akaboshi's gravitational pull, I realized that the meteorites were actually pods that carried small groups of krawl. Unfortunately, when there are a bunch of small groups, they eventually turn into an army.

I thought that that would probably be the best time to make my decision of which moon I would save. Aoboshi, because of its specialty in custom parts for offence, seemed like the best choice.

When I landed on the blue surface of Aoboshi, I was greeted by a stampede of field scientists heading for cover in the research facility to the West of my location. Since that was probably where I'd be going anyway, I decided to let the crowd drag me along.

"Oh g-good, you're here," the professor in charge said in a panicked stutter. "It would s-seem as though this p-p-planet is under attack by the k-krawl." _Really? I hadn't noticed._ I thought to myself. "Unless you act f-fast, these krawl will overrun us within the week! Luckily we r-recently discovered something that c-c-could help you to defeat the krawl. It's over here." He then walked to a large, round observation table in the back of the room.

"Th-this is our custom part X project," he explained quickly. "It'll take too long to explain in detail, but b-basically it turns all spectrobe attacks that are non-physical into physical attacks. We did this in case these k-k-krawl aren't really krawl, like the C-commander said."

"How many of these do you have?" I asked.

"Only f-fifteen, but we've got several more presently in p-production," he stuttered, gesturing towards a closed door.

"Good, all I only need six," I said as I put six of the surprisingly small parts into my prizmod. "Don't worry, I should be able to deal with this pretty fast." My confident smile didn't feel as fitting to the situation as I would have liked. Oh well.

_Kerrigan's POV_

"Princess, the Terrans are sending drop ships of their special forces to your hive clusters on the red and blue moons. Are you prepared?" I informed my heir through the Overseer network.

"Yes, my Queen, we have just morphed several Spore Crawlers near the locations of our Hives and Lairs, and the mutalisks are patrolling the hatcheries," she responded in her confident but cautious voice. "Also, the roaches are prepared for any troops that do manage to reach the ground."

"Excellent," I grinned as this news reached me. It was then that a bright flash of psionic energy appeared in the sights of the overlords above the blue moon. "Princess, there is suspicious activity on the blue moon, and the transports seem to be changing direction towards this. I advise great caution; we don't want to leave a single hive cluster unprotected."

"Understood," she replied with a stiff salute. I must break her of this habit, for it may remind her of her past life.

"Have you evolved any new creatures for us?" I asked as I noticed a particularly odd zerg flying between the moons.

"I call them... corruptors. They fire exploding projectiles at enemy air units. Have I made an error in their design?" She asked, fear of failure evident in her voice.

"We shall see," I responded. "Just make sure that the Terrans do not win this day."

_Jeena's POV_

"I shall make sure of that," I responded before cutting off my communications with my Queen.

I still was not used to the jump that overlords take when traveling long distances, so I still nearly roached when my fleet arrived above the moon known as Aoboshi.

Looking down on the tiny world, I noticed that a strange form of psionic wave was pulsing from a location only a mile from the edge of our creep. Upon closer inspection, I saw a Terran, probably no more than twenty years of age, fighting alongside two creatures that were radiating psi-waves.

"Queen, report!" I shouted as I connected to the Over-network of the hive clusters bellow.

"The Terrans have sent an unidentified militia into the fight. It seems to fight alongside beings made of pure light energy," the queen informed me. "These creatures are equipped with some sort of advanced psi-emitters, which are amplifying their attack strength."

"One fighter? We have lost nearly fifty zerglings to _one_ fighter?" I asked in exasperation. "Did I not tell you to fully upgrade the armor of our ground units?"

"I have, my Princess, but this soldier has defeated all who oppose it," the queen made excuse after excuse. "Do not worry, my Princess, because your roaches are arriving shortly. They will make short work of this Terran hero."

"By that time, the drop ships will have deployed an enough special forces to back him up," I pointed out. "I have no choice but to confront him myself."

I reached the surface of the moon and scowled at the sounds of the place. I hated the sound of thunder with a passion... Although... wasn't this the first time I'd herd it? I had the strangest feeling of déjà vu, like I had been here before.

Walking out to the edge of the creep, I saw him. A man, hardly more than a boy, fighting off six zerglings at once as his creatures did the same. Behind him, several groups of unarmored marines were firing at the approaching roaches.

"You don't honestly think you can defeat an entire army, do you?" I asked the militia as more and more roaches began to morph. I was wearing away at their confidence, just as my Queen had instructed me. "My forces will overwhelm you shortly."

It was then that I revealed myself to the Terrans. Several of the infantrymen redirected their fire towards me, but it simply glanced off of my scales.

"What is your name, krawl?" the young man snarled as he said this. The term he used triggered something. I wasn't sure why, but the word "krawl" suddenly made me feel very defensive.

"I am the Princess of Blades, future leader of the Zerg swarm. What is your name, Terran?" I asked. The death glare he was giving me briefly turned to one of confusion at the word "Terran," but then became twice as hostile. For some odd reason, his glare was making me unusually uncomfortable; even though some of the infantrymen were also giving me the same look.

"I am Rallen, and I asked your name, not your rank," he shouted above the roar of the battle. "I need to know who it is I'm beating." Even as he said this, his creatures tore through four more roaches.

"Rallen..." that name sparked something deep within my memory. Had I met this boy on the battlefield in the past? "Well, Rallen, you don't need to know my name, for I will be the one to prevail this-"

Rallen was staring at me with a look of terrified shock plastered on his face. His pupils had shrunken to the point that all I could see were two orange disks surrounded by white that were wavering slightly.

"Rallen?..." I asked tentatively. "This will be no fun if you don't put up a fight." Nothing.

"Rallen!" one of the marines shouted at the boy as the left side of their army began to push through my forces. The soldier nudged Rallen with the butt of his gun before returning to the fight. This seemed to shake the boy out of his trance.

"Rallen, focus, 'kay?" I said in a scolding voice. "The battlefield is no place for daydreaming."

"Y-your v-voice..." he stuttered as he raised a shaking finger to point at me. "I know that voice!" this time with conviction. "Jeena, what happened to you?"

It was that simple action, that calling of my name, that opened the floodgates to my memory. I suddenly remembered small bits and pieces of my life _before_ the chrysalis. I was an officer of the NPP. My partner was a strategically stupid kid named Rallen. We discovered an old man and a prizmod. We controlled spectrobes together in Kaio. I was hurt many times by the creatures called krawl. I risked my life to save him. He risked his to save me. We fell in love. We went to the planet called Daichi. The zerg attacked. He let them take me away. He dared not fight an enemy he didn't understand, but now he fights them with such vigor. Where was his energy then?

"You remember, don't you?" he said forcefully. "You remember the NPP? You remember the missions? You remember us." This last sentence was directed as a statement.

"I remember, but I have no reason to want to be a Terran again. The Zerg are much greater." It was only then that I looked around and realized that my army had been pushed back to the nearby hatchery. Luckily, the mutalisks stalled them long enough to keep the structures safe. "Besides, why would I go back to a man who couldn't help me when I truly need it?"

This seemed to really set something of in Rallen. He put his remaining spectrobe into his prizmod and retracted his sword. He then slowly walked uphill towards me.

_Never let an enemy be this close to you, unless you plan to kill it. Come on, Jeena, kill him. Tear his throat out. Do _something_ for Char's sake!_

He reached his arms forward as he approached. I found my own arms rising in response. Before I could determine what was happening, I found myself in an embrace with Rallen. I could feel his human heartbeat on my exterior ribcage slowing down slightly.

"I'm sorry, Rallen," I whispered as I dug my claws into his back, "but I live for the swarm now."

"Jeena, why?..." he whimpered as he collapsed to the ground. I watched as the bloodstains spread cross the back of his jacket. I don't think he'll be a problem anymore.

Cliffhanger? I have low expectations for this story, mostly because it's already been proven that RPG and RTS don't mingle well.

Feel free to flame this or any later chapters of this crossover; I honestly think it deserves full firebat penalty.

I don't own Starcraft or Spectrobes, but I do own the concept of the princess of blades.


	5. Her Choice

_Jeena's POV_

"Who was I before?" I practically begged my Queen for an answer. "Why do I have memories of being a Terran, of Fighting against zerglike creatures, of that man...?"

"Silence!" She shocked me with the harshness in her voice and in her cold eyes, but she returned to her usual expression quickly. "You were once a Terran scientist. You worked on ways to combat amoebic creatures you knew as krawl. That man was your closest friend, possibly your mate, but he was careless and allowed you to slip away from him.

"That's all in the past now," she began to run her claws between my outer ribs. "Your memories tell you who you _were_, but your actions today should've told you who you _are_."

"Yes, my Queen," I replied softly before walking from the chamber. My mind was too full of thoughts to remain around one who could only make it worse... simply by making it better.

That man – Rallen, that's his name – he meant something... he was a very important factor in my previous life. My Queen had said he might have been my mate, but if that were true, why would I have come to the Queen of Blades? Why would I betray my race for the Zerg? Perhaps I sought power. Perhaps I wanted a better future, a future with the better race. If this is true, then...

It was at that moment that I knew what I needed to do.

_Rallen's POV_

I didn't want to move. I didn't want to get up and see the reality around me. I didn't want to even continue living in this reality. The reason? I had just been stabbed in the back by a creature who was formerly my best friend... and my girlfriend...

Kinda puts Caesar to shame, doesn't it?

I was barely aware of being carried onboard a medical cruiser by four NPP doctors. My mind was preoccupied by the thought of Jeena becoming the enemy... and by the memory of that dream I had had. Jeena had walked off with a red haired woman, but only after crying to him that he had been too slow... too slow to save her... too slow to bring her back.

I regained consciousness in a familiar room. I'd been here several _hundred_ times before. I was in the medical wing of the NPP main building. How long had I been out? It was dark outside, and the clock on the wall read 19:80.

I suddenly became aware of an aurora beam shining against my back from the cot on which I had been placed. This wasn't good. Jeena's claws must've punctured some sort of important organ for them to give me the Aurora routine. That sound's weird to say: "Jeena's claws." Maybe it's because I'm used to her being human...

"Good to see you're still alive, I was afraid..." the all too familiar voice cracked and paused before continuing. "I was afraid I'd killed you."

"You and I both know it takes more than a few scratches to get to me," I replied with a tone colder than I had intended. "Why did you come here? I thought you didn't lo-"

I was cut off by Jeena's hand firmly over my mouth.

"Don't remind me, or I might regret this decision," she said softly, leaning down next to my ear.

Then, without warning, she adjusted her position and replaced the hand over my mouth with her own lips. It was a shock to say the least, but I can't truthfully say that I didn't enjoy it.

I heard the hum of the aurora machine shut off and I became worried about what "decision" Jeena was making. My fear was turned to amazement when Jeena, without breaking our kiss, slid her hand to my back and began to seal the gashes she had cut only a short time ago.

"See what good the Zerg can do?" Jeena asked as she straightened up. "Why should something so good be considered so evil? Why are we the common enemy?"

"Haven't you seen the evil these 'Zerg' can do as well?" I countered while standing up to reach her eyelevel. "They killed hundreds of innocent citizens and soldiers alike on Ziba's moons, and now you're talking like you're one of them."

"Those deaths were justified, they made way for the births of thousands of Zerg people. Yes, the Zerg are people, no matter how inhuman they are, because they are still sentient beings. Why should I not refer to myself as a Zerg? I am sentient; I am carrying Zerg biomass; I am as much a Zerg as any other," Jeena explained. She grabbed my hands and stared into my eyes before continuing.

"I know you don't understand, but I'm willing to enlighten you," she said with a depth that I couldn't even begin to understand. "I want you to come with me. We can do so much good for this galaxy together."

"I'm sorry Jeena," I whispered, averting my gaze. "I just don't see how these monsters can do anything good when they've done _this_ to you."

Her expression then changed from one of nostalgia to one of sad fury. "Fine, you don't want to do this the easy way? I can do this _her_ way." I suddenly felt my mind slip away into unconsciousness. I couldn't explain why, but my head felt like it was made of lead and my vision was rapidly fading to black.

_Jeena's POV_

I slung Rallen's sleeping form over my shoulder and headed for the window through which I had entered. When I looked down, I saw the corruptor still waiting for me just below the window. That's another good thing about the Zerg: they follow orders with no questions asked.

I arrived at my living chamber within the subterranean hive, on the planet I now remembered as Meido, without running into the Queen. I dropped the unconscious man on the tongue-like structure protruding from the wall that I used as a desk and went to sit on my tumor-bed. The Zerg biostructure is truly beautiful.

I closely watched Rallen for several krennos, but he hadn't moved or made a sound since I had put him into hibernation, with the exception of his unsteady breathing. I began to worry about his physical injuries. I had not anticipated any damage to his internal organs when I went to retrieve him, but when I found him on an aurora pad, I should have figured it out. I will need to perform another transfusion. This wasn't going to be pleasant.

Turning him over so I could see his back, I ripped off his medical shirt and began to inspect the damage I had so willingly inflicted not too long ago. I had replaced the missing skin on his back with my previous operation, but his heart, his liver, and one of his ribs had been nicked by my caws. Replacing these would require too much energy on a Terran, but if he were a Zerg...

I needed to act quickly. His rib wasn't too serious of a problem, but his liver was leaking fluids at an alarming rate and his heartbeat was slowing significantly. Only one option: Infestation. I was planning on leading to this eventually, but the situation moved my plans forward.

The virus first had to be injected into his neural systems. I opened the front of my outer ribcage and drew out a basic neural parasite from my large array of biological tools. It willingly latched onto his lower spine and the infection began to spread. Unfortunately, this would only be temporary. The next step usually involved several days in a chrysalis, but I didn't have that kind of time to spend. I couldn't think of any viable alternative, so I pressed myself against him and allowed my open ribcage to wrap round his torso, acting as a miniature cocoon.

Using all my energy to heal his liver and heart caused all the blood to suddenly rush from my head. I passed out on top of Rallen and was left to think about the consequences of what I'd just done.

I just had a brainwave! Or... I had one at the beginning of this chapter...

In Starcraft and Starcraft 2, The Queen of Blades unit has incredible attack strength that is dealt as direct damage. What if there was a similar infested human who was all about status altering. He or she could heal allies, increase ally attack speed, infest nearby enemies, and chop enemy armor stats in half. I don't know why, but Jeena seems like the perfect person to fit that role.

Any artists out there with working scanners and/or tablets who feel like drawing any of my original characters are welcome to it. No matter how desperate that sentence sounded it was not intended as a stupid "I'm desperate" statement.

I'm open to any and all ideas.

I don't own Spectrobes or Starcraft


	6. Being Human

Rallen's POV

My back hurt. It felt like I had been holding a one hundred twenty pound dumbbell on my back all night. Of course, reality is usually much more frightening than what we first believe. The object was asleep, which made it much harder to get out from under it.

It wasn't just the odd creature snoring on my back that made my spine hurt, though. I had this odd pinching feeling right between my shoulders. There were also strange boney fingers poking at my sides.

"Where am I?" I asked nobody in particular as I realized I was lying facedown on a tongue. Yes, a tongue.

"This is where I live," a familiar voice said from right behind me. I tried to turn around to look for the speaker, but this heavy thing was keeping me from moving around.

"Jeena, is that you? I-I can't see you, there's something heavy on my back keeping me from getting up," I tried to explain. Bad choice of words.

"I'm not that heavy!" Jeena shouted as she got up off of my back. Suddenly all the boney fingers retracted from my sides. "I'd think you'd be more grateful after I saved your life!"

"Oh, Jeena," I grumbled before I turned around to look at her, "I had this horrible nightmare where you wer-" I cut myself off at the sight of her. Now I kinda wish it had been a nightmare.

"Hey! Don't look 'till I close my ribcage back up!" I was too creeped out to stop staring. She was covered in pieces of some sort of shell and her skin was an oddly dark shade of red. Sure, I saw her before on the battlefield, but I never got the chance to really cross-examine her like this.

A rough shove out of the room brought me out of this trance. "I said don't look!"

Why wasn't I scared? This woman stabbed me in the back less than a day-night cycle ago. I think I should be at least partially scared out of my mind. Then I remembered the night before. I remembered the medical wing, the conversation about good and evil, the kiss...

I absent-mindedly touched my hand to my lips. I stopped abruptly when I felt a sting on my upper lip. I had scratched myself? How did I do that? I took a quick look at my hands.

Jeena's POV

I heard Rallen's scream just as I was shifting my last rib back into place. I immediately rushed to the convulsion door and spread it open.

"Rallen, are you alright?" I asked worriedly.

"No, Jeena, I'm not alright!" He shouted back at me. "I have _claws_. When did this happen?"

"Last night," I told him matter-of-factly. "I did it to save your life. You should be a little more grateful. It took a lot outa me to do that. Not to mention I was topless the entire time."

At that, Rallen blushed a bright shade of crimson. Unlike me, his complexion was still the same tan color it had been before the assimilation. He also didn't have any distinguishing features like my ribcage or my Queen's wings. The prizmod was still in tact on his wrist; though it looked different somehow.

"So you gave me claws to save my life?" Rallen asked dumbly. "How does that work?

"No, no," I chuckled as I tried to explain a bit better, "the claws are a side affect. Take a look at the rest of you."

Rallen looked down at the carapace-like protrusions from his shoulders and the veins holding his prizmod in place. "Jeena what did you do!" he shouted.

"I saved your life. I told you the Zerg were good, but of course, you never listened to me _before_ all this happened either," I joked. He, unfortunately, wasn't finding this very funny. His mind was buzzing from the thoughts of being turned into what he still thought was a monster.

"What good could this possibly do for either of us?" he asked with distinct anger in his voice.

"Watch," I said as I extended one of my claws towards the opposite arm. I then slit my talon directly across the joint of my wrist. I managed to stop the blood in the rest of my body from flowing to my wrist so I could minimize the fear this act produced in Rallen. My body then began the simple process of re-growing a hand. In only a few seconds, my hand had returned and I was testing my fingers for stiffness. "See, if I hadn't infested you, your internal damages would have easily killed you last night."

He looked at his own claws and drowned his consciousness in thought. "Then why are you attacking innocent people in Nanairo?" The question caught me off guard.

"To spread the Zerg, of course," I was trying to understand the full implication of what he was asking. "If everybody in Nanairo is a zerg, then we'd be safer should the krawl return."

"Is that what you think? Or is that what _she_ thinks?" He snarled. "Yeah, I know about her. The redhead who thinks you belong to her because I couldn't save you. Maybe she was right." I'd almost never seen Rallen this angry before. I believe the last time was when we discovered the truth about Krux. Now the anger was pointed at me, though. I didn't like it, but it made me stop to think.

"What would you do in this position?" I attempt to turn the tables on him, but it doesn't work.

"I'd ask every question I could of that woman. Why can't she ask people nicely to become a Zerg? I'll answer that now, actually. It's because humans, as intelligent beings, have the free will and the right to say 'I want to be human'. I don't want to be more powerful if it means I can't be human. That's why I hate Krux. That's why I hate _her_." Every word in those last two sentences stung. He was comparing the Queen of Blades to Krux.

"It's not smart to conspire against your leader, underlings," a furious voice came from behind me. "Nor is it smart to induct a brood father into the swarm without my permission. I'm afraid you two have just become expendable!"

I know, short chapter, but I've been having some serious writer's block and this story finally came to me last night after watching some conspiracy movies by Michael Moore.

Hope you liked the cliff, but please don't fall off. Just hang on until the next chapter.

I don't own Spectrobes or Starcraft


	7. Escape

Jeena's POV

I could sense the presence of several hundred other zerg entities moving through the infrastructure of the Meido hive cluster. The Queen of Blades was calling for her guards. Hunter-Killers, Roachalisks, and Raptorlings were quickly closing in on our position.

"I hereby revoke your title 'Princess of Blades'," the Queen grunted as she sent a death glare towards Rallen and me. "You no longer have the right to be addressed so highly. I will know you now as the Fallen Star. Not that it matters; you'll be dead soon anyway." The Raptorlings, ironically another of my own inventions, filed into the expanding bowels of the hive cluster. "I'm sure you know what happens when Zerglings and Raptorlings get a full surround. I'd love to stay and watch, but I've got planets to infest."

She strutted out of the cavernous hallway, leaving us alone with a few dozen enhanced Zerglings. Rallen handed me something. "You're gonna need this," he said. It was a duplicate of his prizmod! He had used the zerg's high growth rate to cultivate a clone of the infested prizmod on his arm. "These may not be krawl, but these aren't spectrobes anymore, either."

Wondering what he meant, I attempted to call out Zozane and Aobasar. What I got were, as Rallen had told me, not spectrobes. Zozane was covered in a thick shell and had two rows of axe blade shaped spines ran down his back and acid was dripping from his mouth. Aobasar's tail and legs were curved under her and looked somewhat like worms with oddly shaped mouths.

Apparently the Raptorlings perceived the spectrobes as an immediate threat and leapt at us. I had designed them to have an ability similar to the charge ability that I had learned about in an especially old overlord's mind. They leap at the target and deal significantly worse physical damage with their first attack than with the small slashes following it.

"Zozaroach, attack!" I reflexively shouted. Zozaroach? That had a nice ring to it. Zozaroach leapt at the incoming Raptorlings and spun madly, spitting acid at the same time. The acid hit every Raptorling within about six feet, and the two rows of spinning blades sliced through four Raptors on their own. During Zozaroach's strong attack, Mutabasar, as I had renamed her, was spitting Mutalisk glaives from the mouthlike openings at the ends of her three tails.

Rallen had also called out two spectrobes. Judging by what they looked like and how they were attacking, I'm going to address them as Spika Lord and Overgiga. Spika lord was a Spikanor with two fin-like appendages on his sides and two tails. Rather than swinging his tails like a melee weapon, however, the mace-like tips flew off and became small crabs that attacked until they died of exposure. Overgiga was a purple Dongiga with too many eyes. It burrowed and unburrowed to attack. Each time it changed state, a shockwave knocked the Raptorlings into one another.

"Jeena, keep your eye on the battle!" Rallen shouted at me. I turned and saw a Hunter-Killer enter the room and fire a needle at me. I pulled a capsule out of my ribcage and tossed it at the mutated Hydralisk. The grenade exploded and released a gas that caused the Hunter-Killer and the Raptorlings around it to attack each other. Even when the Hunter-Killer was dead, the Raptorlings continued to claw and jump at one another.

"Rallen, That tunnel is the fastest way out of here," I explained, pointing at the orifice through which a majority of the zerg were entering. "If we can fight our way through this swarm, we might be able to get off of Meido."

Rallen brought a huge axe out of his prizmod. It looked like an Ultralisk's tusk on the end of a stick. "Alright then," he snarled, "Let's get moving!" He swung the massive blade through the growing swarm and cut down their numbers drastically. "Quick, before the next wave can get in!" He recalled his zerg and ran towards the tunnel.

On our way through the innards of the hive, we encountered several search parties of Zerglings and Roaches, which we made easy work of. The challenge came when we encountered an enormous cavern, outside of the main hive, with an entire cliff face covered in spine crawlers. Rallen had the brilliant idea of getting them to all attack us at once. Then, when the two or three that were in range lodged their claws in the path in front of us, he grabbed onto its neck with one arm and wrapped the other around my waist. The spine crawler pulled us up towards its base and into the range of another, higher up crawler. When the second spine crawler slashed the first across the base, Rallen, holding me tightly to him, jumped onto the thing's neck. He repeated this until he reached the top of the cliff.

"I can see the mouth of the cave!" he shouted as he looked towards the small hole in the sandy ceiling. "Pegantalisk, let's get outa here." The winged zerg that closely resembled Pegantium appeared underneath us. I clung tightly to Rallen's back as we flew up through the sand pit that marked the entrance to Meido's underworld. "Don't stop flying until we're out of attack range from this place."

Peganalisk set us down on the opposite side of a low mountain range. After Rallen called it back into his prizmod, I walked over to a nearby rock to sit and rest my sore legs. My muscles were aching from running through a subterranean hive cluster for so long. Rallen came over and sat on the ground, his back against the rock. He looked over to me.

"Do you remember how this whole thing started?" He asked my in a whisper. "That day on Kollin?"

"Yeah," I replied in the same tone. "You asked me out for the millionth time."

"245th, actually," He corrected me. I chuckled lightly. He'd been counting?

"Okay, 245th time. You wanted to go to Genshi for a picnic," I continued. "It's a beautiful place without a bunch of black vortexes wandering around in the valleys." I leaned over onto his shoulder as the memories of what life was like before I was infested played through my mind.

"Yeah..." Rallen sighed. This might be the most relaxed I've ever seen him. Even before the krawl, Rallen was not the type of person to just sit back and look at the stars, but at the moment, I guess he really didn't have a choice. "Hey Jeena?"

"Yes?" I replied softly.

"I love you," He dreamily answered.

"I love you, too, Rallen," I whispered back as I began to drift off to sleep.

Rallen, the Prince of Lost Light, and Jeena, the Princess of Fallen Stars: They're neither human, nor krawl, nor zerg. What will they do next?

Rhetorical question! Though I'd like to hear your input.

Read and Review/comment!

I don't own Spectrobes or Starcraft.


	8. Investigation

Rallen's POV

I woke up the next morning assuming that I'd be human when I woke up. I guess I'll have to break that habit because I looked down and saw those annoying claws where my fingers should've been. "I was hoping that was all a dream," I muttered to myself angrily.

"You and me both," Jeena sighed. "It's not fun to have no place to go, no home to return to. I miss my old apartment."

"Oh, that's right, you lived on Nessa before you started with the NPP," I said absent-mindedly. I leaned backwards against the rock I'd been sleeping on and closed my eyes again. "That was so long ago. It felt like a completely different life even before this whole thing with the Zerg."

"Yeah, everything's changed," Jeena said sadly as I heard her roll off of the rock. "And yet..." she settled next to me. "There's something telling me that it's all the same."

I had no idea what she was talking about. Of course everything had changed. What _had_ stayed the same? We were both monsters. The krawl had retreated to wherever it was they went. The NPP was faced with a new enemy that nothing could've prepared them for. Nothing was the same!

"Not true, Rallen," Jeena giggled as she said this. Could she hear my thoughts? "You need to think on a smaller level for once. I wasn't saying nothing had changed out there. I meant nothing had changed right down here." She placed her hand on my chest, right above my heart. I opened my eyes just in time to see Jeena's face closing in. Time froze as her head inched closer to my own. Then it happened; for the first time in what felt like an eternity...

Jeena kissed me.

Commander Grant's POV

"Where did he disappear to?" I asked nobody in particular as I searched through security video after security video to find even a hint as to where Rallen had gone. Unfortunately, all the conventional cameras within twenty miles of headquarters had only recorded RGB static on the night Rallen disappeared.

"Commander," a concerned face popped up in the corner of my holoscreen.

"What is it Harry?" I responded, not removing my eyes from the set of surveillance footages. I had moved on from looking at the normal cameras to checking corona sensors, aurora detectors, flash readings from the wires, even the motion triggered light switches. They've all got the same static as everything else.

"I've just discovered an encryption in the data from several of the cameras. It seems the static we've been picking up isn't entirely static. The pixels have arranged themselves in sets of eighteen," Harry explained as he brought a diagram up onto my screen. "Every pixel corresponds to the pixels two ahead of it and three behind it. By following this pattern we get an image that's made of sixteen scattered rectangles that need to be rearranged by simply-"

I cut him off before he had to explain the "simple" process of turning four colors into useable video feed. "Just send me the results as soon as possible."

Two hours later, I received a video message from Harry. Unfortunately the series of security feeds was tampered with. All I could figure out was that something removed Rallen from his room by entering through the window. The figure of the person or thing responsible was covered by white lines that greatly resembled lightning. I watched the video several times, looking for some indication of what the kidnapper was.

"All this recording tells me is that he was captured," I commented to Harry. "I've got no idea who or what did it."

"Uh... check minute 45, frame 58," Harry said after frantically searching through his documents for the right record. I stopped the video at the precise point Harry had told me. I didn't really notice anything. "Turn up the contrast a bit and brace yourself. You're not going to like what you see."

He was right.

Between two streaks of white lightning, I saw a face that was all too familiar to me. I blinked twice to clear whatever was in my eyes. I looked again and there it was. Maybe I was just hallucinating in my old age...

"Well, the good news is the bio-krawl didn't kill her," Harry offered meekly. Bio-krawl was the name we gave the strange new creatures Rallen had discovered.

"Yes, but the bad news is that she's kidnapped Rallen while his injuries were too serious for him to even move," I commented. "Why?"

"How'd she get in? That window is miles above any flat surface," Harry asked absentmindedly. This was very perplexing.

Jeena, what are you doing?

Short chapter, I know. I ran out of ideas... sorry...

I don't own blah blah blah


	9. Packing Up

Rallen's POV

I woke in the same position as last time: leaning back against a rock somewhere on Meido. There was something different, though. I couldn't quite figure out what it was, but there was something nagging at the back of my brain that said 'something changed'. Of course, that wasn't true. Nothing had changed. Isn't that what Jeena said... Jeena! That's what was different. She was lying on top of me with her arms around my neck.

"Jeena," I hummed in an unintentionally singsong voice. I lightly ruffled her hair. "Jeena, wake up. I kinda want to get off this rock."

"Five more minutes," Jeena replied, rolling over onto her back so that her head was parallel to mine.

"Oh, c'mon, normally I'm the one to sleep in," I commented while laughing. She turned her head towards mine, but didn't open her eyes. "Alright, five more minutes, but you better be keeping track."

I leaned my head against hers. Her hair didn't feel any different than it had before she became a zerg. It was still soft and silky and an unusual shade of pink. I wrapped my arms around her lightly. The damn ribcage was getting in the way. Her skin, although it was an eerie shade of red, wasn't _that_ different from human skin. Her face hadn't changed at all. I suddenly had the urge to examine that fact more closely.

As I moved my eyes closer to hers to get a better look, I saw them open slightly. I felt her soft, human lips brush against mine. "Good morning, handsome," she said, I felt her lips curl up into a smile as she kissed me. "It's been five minutes."

"Has it?" I asked with a grin. "I hadn't noticed."

We stood up, still clinging tightly to one another, and she turned around in my arms so as to face me. "So, you want to get off-planet?" She asked. "Where did you have in mind? I know these nice ruins on Nessa..."

"How?" I asked.

"I used to live on Nessa, remember?" She reminded me.

"I know that. I meant: How are we going to get there? We don't have a ship, and there's no way to get one on this planet. An I doubt those zerg are gonna give us a lift," I pointed out.

"Leave that to me," Jeena smirked. "I've gained some connection with the zerg underground." She broke away from me and kneeled to the ground.

The planet itself felt as though it were going to shatter as the soil beneath my feet rumbled and groaned. A massive creature emerged from the ground, sending debris flying in all directions. The creature settled down and opened what I presume to be its mouth. Out of this opening came a spider-like zerg with webbing between its legs and massive antlers atop its head.

"The Princess of Fallen Stars calls for me?" The thing asked in a raspy voice. Then it pointed its many eyes in my direction. "Ah, I see the Prince of Lost Light has also made it to safety."

"Yes, Tyrlana, we are both here. We need your help," Jeena said to the creature. She then turned to me. "This is a rogue brood mother. I created her as one of my subordinates, but she abandoned the swarm and became somewhat of an enemy to the Queen of Blades. She still thinks of me as her equal, though."

"What can I assist you with, Princess?" Tyrlana asked.

"Gather your underlings, we've got to leave this planet," Jeena explained. "Bring only the essentials, we don't want to alarm the Terrans." The brood mother crawled back into the monstrous mouth, which proceeded to recede into the ground. Jeena turned back to me. "We've got a while before they get back."

I kind of expected as much. "How did Tyrlana break away from the rest of the zerg? I thought they all listened to the Queen," I inquired. This whole zerg lifestyle was confusing me more than being human.

"I'm pretty sure the Brood Mothers are able to become self aware. They can randomly start thinking for themselves at any given moment. What they do with that freedom is up to them," Jeena explained. "Once in a while, a Brood Mother goes rogue."

"I don't get it," I said. This is why I was a pilot and not a field scientist.

"Hopeless!" Jeena chided as she flicked my forehead playfully.

The massive creature reemerged from the ground and, before landing its enormous head on the ground, spat several of the large flying creatures with six legs into the air. The balloon-like zerg lowered to hang their legs at about my shoulder level. The giant subterranean creature planted itself and opened its mouth wide. Black beetles, giant larval creatures, and clawless crabs scuttled out of the open jaws. The clambered up the legs of the floating zerg above us and into an odd orifice in the creatures' bases. Tyrlana emerged from the mouth shortly.

"Where are the drones?" Jeena asked the spider-like zerg.

"They are in the hive clusters, gathering resources. Are you intending to create a hatchery where you are going?" Tyrlana asked in response.

"Yes, we are leaving permanently. In fact, we'll need to destroy the nydus network before we leave," Jeena explained. "We'll take care of that." We? Am I included in this?

In answer to my question, Jeena grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the maw of the giant creature. I shut my eyes tight. This was gross! There was spit all over the place and the walls were moving. I was glad to find myself in a relatively dry place when I opened my eyes.

"Where are we?" I asked almost reflexively.

"This is the Nydus Worm's stomach," Jeena told me. I think I threw up a little in my mouth. "This is where all the zerg underlings stay when they're preparing to take the enemy by surprise. Ah, here come the drones."

Eight small, stingray-like zerg slid into the cavernous organ from three different attached tubes. They were followed by two of the bat creatures from Genshi and a gargantuan flying kite-shaped zerg with two smaller ones in tow. Jeena pointed them in the direction we had just come from and they slithered and flew right past us into the tunnel.

"What were those?" I asked.

"Eight drones, a couple of mutalisks, and a brood lord. We'll need the air units to defend out caravan through space," Jeena explained casually. I wonder how much time she spent analyzing these creatures to learn all these names. It took her forever to pronounce Hanebakuon's name right.

"Now what?" I asked dumbly.

"Now, we destroy Tyrlana's Nydus Network. It'll also set back some of the Queen's production," Jeena replied as she popped open the left side of her ribcage. "I totally forgot that I don't have any explosives. Can you give me a hand, Rallen?"

"Huh?"

"You've got an arsenal of zerg weapons. Give me an acid pustule," Jeena said, holding out her hand.

"I have no idea what you mean," I pointed out.

"I'll get it myself." She was standing behind me faster than I could blink. I suddenlt felt her hand groping the shell pieces on my upper legs. After a few embarrassed objections from me, she reassured me, "I'm just trying to find where that gallon of baneling acid went during your infestation. Aha!"

I felt a slight tug on my left cheek as Jeena pulled something from under my shell. She stood in front of me with a green orb in her hand. She tossed the odd bubble from one hand to the other to get a feel of its weight. She then pitched the thing as far from herself as she could into the interior of the Nydus Stomach.

"Run!" she shouted as she turned towards me and sprinted. She grabbed my hand and pulled me back into the Nydus Worm's throat.

We were thrown out of the jaws of the creature just as the green acid was dissolving the massive head. One of the balloon-like zerg drifted down to us and Jeena pulled me up into the creature's strange orifice. Zerg are so gross.

I was surprised to find the large cavern inside the creature empty besides Jeena and me. I was expecting us to be traveling with a large group of those black beetles or something. "Nope," Jeena said. I seriously think she can hear my thoughts; it's kinda creepy. "I reserved this overlord just for us. It's a long trip from here to Nessa, so I thought we could have some time alone." She smiled strangely as she wrapped one arm around my shoulders kissed me on the cheek. She then let go of me and walked over to a tongue-like structure sticking out of the wall and casually gestured for me to follow.

Maybe this trip won't be so long. People have always told me that time flies when you're having fun.

James Raynor 2, reporting for duty! Can you tell I've been listening to Pul McCrtney too much? This chapter just sorta drops of in a suggestive moment that may or may not get me into trouble. I take all the blame for this.

FYI: Isaarf is no longer involved in this fanfic.

I don't own Spectrobes or Starcraft (but it would be awesome if I did!)


	10. New Allies All 'Round

Commander Grant's POV

The reports were coming in by the hundreds. A massive swarm of bio-krawl had mobilized from their base on Meido. Their heading was completely different from their previous offensive movement. This time, they were headed straight towards Genshi.

"Commander, are you there?" Professor Wright's voice came through my desk speakers. "We've got a situation down here. The bio-krawl have generated several large structures along the sides of the volcanoes near Genshi's second landing site. It's only a matter of time before they launch an assault like the ones on Ziba's moons. I'm afraid we don't have enough ships for a full evacuation."

This could've been my chance to find Rallen and Jeena, but my own hypotheses caused a deadly hesitation. "I'll send all patrols in that vicinity to your aid. The Special Forces should stay put, though. I don't want a surprise attack on Kollin."

It was my own fault. I thought those two were behind all this. If they had been, we might've stood a chance against that swarm on Genshi. As it was, our adversaries showed no mercy, no sign of slowing down until every living thing on Genshi had been devoured. This was war, and we were losing...

Queen of Blades' POV

"Understand this, Prince of Stones," I explained very slowly to my new subordinate, "you are a great general of my Swarm. I expect you to act as such. Any sign of disloyalty, and you'll be food for the underlings. Understood?"

"Yes, my queen," the newly infested Terran replied with obedient rigidity.

"Excellent," I grinned. I couldn't let another of my high-blooded brood generals to abandon my Swarm. "Your first task is simple. I want you to find and capture your predecessors. Bring them to me, alive! This should be a good chance to test those pets of yours."

"I shall begin my search immediately, my Queen," He replied with a nod.

As he turned to leave, I found myself inhaling deeply almost out of reflex. The familiar scent of volcanic ash filled the air. What a lovely reminder of home! I then called down a nearby overseer. "Report, Vassal, how go the battles across the planet."

"My Queen, the roaches have proven an invaluable asset to our campaign due to their ability to tunnel, but the Guardians seem to have become obsolete," The overseer reported. I wonder why that would be. "The Terrans possess a flying craft, similar to the phoenixes belonging to the Protoss. These ships not only have the ability to strike hard against the defenseless Guardians, but also are able to annihilate mutalisks before they are allowed within range."

"That girl's creations seem to be our strongest weapon against these Terrans," I thought aloud. "Send a message to the brood mothers. No more shall we produce mutalisks and Guardians. We must begin work on our new corrupters, as well as the brood lords they become."

"It is sent, my Queen," The overseer hissed as it rose to flight level once again. Its eyes began furiously blinking, sending the new orders out to the hive clusters.

This was war, and we planned to win.

Rallen's POV

I woke up on a soft bed, covered in warm blankets. My arms were lightly wrapped around something even softer than the pillow under my head. My nose brushed up against some sort of silky material that sent shivers down my spine. Good shivers. I leaned my head forward until my nose and mouth brushed up against something solid and smooth. I gingerly extended my lips and gave this soft something a long kiss.

"Good morning to you too, Rallen," Jeena whispered. She turned around so that our faces were only a few inches apart. It was then that I noticed that her ribcage was open and a few of her carapace fragments were loose and rattled slightly as she adjusted her position. "Did you sleep well?"

"Uh... yeah... I slept great, thanks," I replied embarrassedly. "Uh, Jeena, your... ribs are open." I kept my eyes locked on hers as I said this.

"I know," she said with a smirk. "Do you want me to close them?"

I thought for a minute before replying the negative, and she pulled herself closer to me as our lips met. I wrapped my arms around her to pull her closer. I suddenly became aware of my own loose carapace fragments, more specifically the ones on my lower body. What happened last night, exactly?

"As much as I'd love to stay in bed all day," Jeena said after pulling away from me, "We've got work to do." She got up out of the bed, which I now saw was just another one of those tumor-like growths in the floor, and walked over towards what I assumed was the exit. She began carefully clicking her ribs into place.

"What kind of work?" I asked. "I thought we were just hiding here until the war out there died down."

"That's the problem, Rallen, it's not going to just 'die down' unless somebody does something," she retorted in her matter-of-fact tone. "We are that somebody... I think..."

That wasn't the most inspiring statement, but I'd follow her anywhere, so it didn't really matter whether she was right or not. She moved towards a flap of skin on the wall that peeled back to reveal the brightly colored sands of Nessa. I followed Jeena out of this opening and took a look around. There was nothing but sand and sandstorms for hundreds of miles. One of those large, balloon-like zerg sunk down towards us and dropped off a queen.

"What's the present status of the Queen of Blades?" Jeena asked the queen in a serious tone.

"The main Swarm has mobilized. The Queen launched a full frontal assault on this system's first planet, using mostly your creations in battle. This has left their original base in this system completely open to attack, but has greatly improved the Swarm's position. Their numbers have also increased exponentially," the queen finished its report and relaxed its spindly legs once it had finished speaking.

"Alright, Rallen," Jeena sughed, turning to me, "looks like we've got a busy day ahead of us."

"What are we gonna do, exactly?" It was a legitimate question. We were two renegade mutants with a fraction of an army at our disposal. If the NPP found us we were as good as dead, but for some reason Jeena insisted on going up against an entire swarm.

"I can hear your thoughts, Rallen," Jeena glared at me. "You seem to forget that we have infested prizmods, both of which are stocked with hyper-evolved spectrobes. I think either one of us could take a brood on our own, but that's not what I've got planned for today. We're going to seek out an alliance with the humans."

Cyrus's POV (wow this chapter jumps around a lot)

The last crew of miners had just returned from the far side of the planet with a shipload of less than precious gems. This was to be expected by this time of day, but that didn't stop me from chewin' 'em out.

"You morons really think I want Attack-C minerals?" I shouted at the captain. "And what's with this Corona-B? It's got a huge crack down the side!" It was only 'bout six millimeters long, but no flaw escapes me. "Yer completely useless! Tomorrow I'm sendin' you out first thing in the morning." This was met with a collective groan from the miners. "Well it's not like you got anything better to do tomorrow."

The miners continued grumbling as they returned to the colony, leaving my factory workers to transport the minerals into a nearby processing station. I grinned at the clockwork of my perfect industry. Then something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Something was raising a dust cloud in the desert, and it was moving this way.

"What is it, Boss?" One of the colony's patrolmen asked when he looked out and saw the cloud.

"I don't know," I responded, "and if it doesn't involve me and/or money, I don't really care."

As I turned around, I heard a loud crashing noise. The patrolman shouted, "boss, look out!"

...

I woke up in a daze. All I could see were two shadowy people standing over me. "Oh, good, he's waking up," one said in a familiar, girly voice. As my vision cleared I began to see smudges of pink and red on top of the figure's heads.

"You two NPP brats again?" I meant it more as a statement than a question, but it came out as a question.

"Well... sorta," The boy said. What was that kid's name again? Raffi? Randolph? Robert?

I rubbed the confusion out of my eyes with one hand. "What d'you mean 'sorta'? Either yer them or yer-" I cut myself off when I saw the two of them clearly.

They weren't human. Not anymore, at least. The girl had a second ribcage wrapped around her body and the boy had huge plates sprouting out of his back and shoulders. What happened since the last time I saw them?

I think this story's drama is fluctuating... whatever that means... We're not really sure of half the stuff we type into these computers. The other half just creeps us out. I'm speaking for my self, by the way; the other four probably understand these rambling stories.

We don't own Spectrobes or StarCraft.


	11. Spectrozerg Power!

Third Person POV

"Cyrus, we require more minerals!" Jeena shouted up through the duct system. The two royal zerg rejects had formed a sort of makeshift alliance with Cyrus's company. In return for _possibly_ saving the entire Nanairo system... again, Cyrus gave the two former patrol officers an unused boiler room and all the un-sellable minerals they wanted. The spacious boiler room, nearly 60,000 square feet of ground space, provided more than enough room for a good-sized hive cluster to form.

"Keep your cage on!" The large man hollered down through his end of the ducts. He began shouting at his least favorite workers to start carting off the rejects to the autolifts. He turned back to the pipe and said, "I got 'bout a thousand more coming yer way."

Jeena sent a Komaling to the door of the lift to retrieve the mineral load. The tiny, red zerg hauled the hovering mine cart back to the massive Ruin-hive at the center of the cluster. It then returned to sniffing around the cavernous room for any trace of minerals buried in the ground.

"Why're we still ordering minerals from Cyrus?" Rallen asked Jeena through the Seer system. "Don't you think 650 supply of spectrozerg is enough?"

"It'd be fine for taking down the hive cluster on Ziba's moon," Jeena said, covering the duct opening so Cyrus couldn't hear. "We'll need at least six times that amount if we're gonna go after the queen's swarm on Genshi."

"We're not gonna have time for that kind of production, are we?" Rallen asked.

"Of course we will," Jeena responded, "We've got all the time in the world. If the Queen of Blades tries anything, we can stop her armies before they morph the first hatchery. It's offense we're not ready for."

Rallen waved off a pair of Zozaroaches that were pestering him. "So, what if she attacks us here, full force?" A Zazaroach joined the two obnoxious Zozaroaches.

"She doesn't know where we are, though," Jeena replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh, right..." Rallen turned away from his Vilaseer for a moment to get the spectrozerg to stop pulling at his prizmod arm. "So, what are we using these minerals for, anyway?"

"We're expanding our Nydus Network. We've gotta be able to go anywhere on Nessa at any moment," Jeena explained, keeping the duct behind her covered. "We're going to need at least four more Nydus Kugasters and Mesa Worms."

"Is that all?" Rallen asked.

"That depends on Cyrus," Jeena stated as she turned back to the air ducts. "More minerals!" Silence. "Cyrus, you there?" A sputtering noise echoed through the cavernous boiler room.

"They're here!" Cyrus's husky voice hissed down through the pipes.

Jeena sprinted from her and Rallen's room in the Ruin-hive. Making her way to the Corona Warren, she began shouting through the mental airways of the overlords. _They found us! The Queen of Blades has sent her swarm her to destroy us. Prepare to fight!_

Prince of Stones's POV

The massive facility, known to the Terrans as _The Colony_, was full of more minerals than my brood knew what to do with. What do these miserable creatures intend to do with such resources? That was a question for another day. I now had to think about what _I _should do with it. Perhaps this was just what I needed to achieve my goal of overthrowing the Queen.

"Prince of Stones!" a queen reported. "We have discovered spreading creep in the lower floors of the Colony. This has given us reason to believe that our targets are somewhere below as well. Are we to begin a search?"

"The renegades are here?" the Prince asked no one in particular. "Send out zergling scouts immediately."

"There is a problem with that, Prince," the queen explained, bowing her head. "The creep is emitting strange psionic pulses. If we send a zergling onto this creep it will slowly be destroyed from the inside out."

"Then send ultralisk scouts, brood lords, whatever. Just send something in there to scout around," I spat back. I've found that these queens know nothing of strategy unless I tell them what to do.

I linked my psionic vision to that of the scouting unit. The viewpoint seemed oddly close to the ground... This was a drone!

"Queen!" I called the bishop back to my side. "What is the meaning of this? You tell me the creep is killing our units, so you send a weaker unit?"

"Ultralisks would not be able to fit through the halls of the Colony, as they were designed for Terran use," the seemingly strategically stupid queen explained humbly. "Also, the creep's unusual negative properties do not seem to affect non-combat units. The only side-effect the drone is feeling is the 40% increase in speed that the unusual creep provides for units containing the zerg virus."

I attempt to link back up with the drone, assuming it would be dead by now, but it was healthy and roving around the facility at mach speed. I told the queen to bring the caged creatures down from orbit. I turned back to the drone's view just in time to see it go black as it rounded a corner labeled "Engineering Block."

"That's it, we've found them!" I shouted back to the rest of my brood.

Rallen's POV

I heard the telltale crack of Aurora Crawlers lashing out, and I started to panic. I sprinted back to the massive Ruin-hive to find Jeena. They found us faster than we thought.

"Rallen, what's wrong?" she asked as I came flying into the room, panting.

"They're here. They found us," I gasped as I quickly regained my breath. "Our crawlers just killed one of their scouts."

"Alright, I didn't think we'd need to do this, but..." Jeena hesitated for a moment. "Get in." A stiff structure that greatly resembled my seat in the patrol cruiser was pushed up through the floor of the room. I will _never _get used to this whole zerg biostructure thing. Then I felt the room start to rise. "I said get in, Rallen!"

I flopped into my seat, which felt a bit squishier than normal, but whatever, and grabbed the steering... claws on the surface in front of me. That was when it occurred to me. "Does this thing fly?"

"Why else would I call it the Ruin-hive?" Jeena responded with a brief smile.

"But how are we gonna get out of this room?" I shouted the question over the roar of the engine.

"Up and out!"

The roof gave way as the massive pyramidal creature rose straight up through it. Below me, I saw our assorted Nydus Network openings spewing our hundreds of units out onto the open desert around the Colony. The confused zerg forces that had been looking for us had obviously found more than they bargained for.

"Where do we go now?" I asked once the excitement of flying again had dulled a bit.

"Right back down there," Jeena grinned madly as she pointed to the rubble that was once the Nessa Mining Colony. She regained her composure and continued, "We've got to make sure the survivors make it out."

Cyrus's POV

I crawled over to my desk, trying to keep myself from bleeding to death. Those mutated monsters think they can kill Cyrus with one shot? Well, Cyrus'll show them! Just as soon as Cyrus stops speaking in third-person...

I Reached into the hidden drawer under my desk and pulled out my blaster. Those spiny bastards wouldn't catch me off guard again! That was when one a them little suckers chose to hop up onto my desk. It's rows of teeth dribblin' all over my chair.

"You better be ready to pay for that!" I shouted as I pulled myself out from under the desk. The gross little mongrel looked at me sideways a moment before jumpin' at me. I pulled the trigger, there was a loud thunder-like noise, and everything went black.

Grant's POV

Fifteen minutes of peace. Thank you, Harry. I needed this. I was so worn out from fighting a war against the biokrawl that I hadn't slept in six days. This fifteen-minute coffee break was just what I needed. I looked down at my desk and saw something I'd almost completely forgotten about. It was Jeena's journal. I could have sworn I left that in Rallen's room in the Medical wing... Oh well, I've got some free time. I thought I might as well search for any information I can get on these biokrawl.

I flipped through the little book, looking at the dates until I got close to the day Jeena disappeared. A folded slip of paper flopped down from a later page. It was taped to the day that we found the journal on Daichi. I pulled the Folded paper out of the small book and unfolded it.

It was a note from someone calling himself or herself "N.T." He or she knew something important about the creatures we called biokrawl, but he or she referred to them as "zerg."

I needed to show this to my colleagues... after my break was over.

Finally! It's finished!

Anyone who can guess who N.T. is, don't spoil it for the rest of the readers. I want it to be a surprise-ish thing.

Should I bring the krawl into this? I've been debating that with my fellow artists for a while, so I was wondering if you guys any input.

We don't own Spectrobes or StarCraft.


	12. The Search

_Attention Native Human Faction of this Star System,_

_I have been sent by the Dominion to this sector on a reconnaissance mission based on intel about a large zerg force traveling in this direction. Originally such a rumor would be ignored, as the zerg have not been seen for nearly four years, but similar reports have been coming in from other locations outside of the Koprulu Sector. This particular swarm seems to contain a certain individual who acted as the zerg's leader during a war the Dominion knows as the Brood War. She is dangerous and not to be trusted. Her only goal is to destroy sentient life and assimilate it into the bulk of her army. She will stop at nothing to complete this goal and dominate the Milky Way galaxy. _

_I understand that one member of your elite corps of fighters was taken by the zerg at approximately 06:30 in the afternoon, Shipboard time. I have reason to believe that she is alive, though it is only based on my knowledge of the old zerg tactics. She may well be dead. Another member of the same elite corps was, so some extent, on the scene when I arrived. He was falling from a flock of mutalisks that were closely guarding an overlord. As you may have noticed, I took the liberty of transporting him to your capital planet._

_The zerg were not an easy foe to defeat during the Brood Wars, so do not assume you can easily fend them off. I would also advise against a "live-and-let-live" policy. They will not let you live. Not under any circumstances. They will kill and infest and spread until your entire star system belongs to them. I will gladly help your people to whatever extent I can, but no further help will be given to you by the Dominion. They refuse to assist any human faction so obviously incorporated with the Protoss._

_I'm sorry this is all the help I can give,_

_N.T._

Grant's POV

The council was silent. Minutes passed as the members quietly considered the note. Kate was the first to speak, "What does this change? Can't we just keep going as we've been going?"

"If only it were that simple," Webster creaked. "This could mean so much more than we're interpreting it as. What if this person is lying?"

"Nothing, we just keep fighting the way we're fighting," I stated pointedly. "This changes absolutely nothing."

"That's not what I meant," Webster elaborated. "What if this 'Dominion' is trying to perform a hostile takeover? They send in a supposed diplomat in. Then, they turn around and get us in the back while we're weak from fighting the zerg."

This seemed a bit out of place coming from Webster, but that was beside the point. "As long as there's a common enemy to fight, humans don't kill humans," I explained. "Didn't you notice the crime rate drop 90% during the Krawl Wars?"

"That's another thing," Webster said, ignoring my first point. "There is no mention of the krawl in this mystery person's note. It's as if the zerg are the only monsters in the Dominion's universe."

"Maybe they are," Kate suggested, earning curious stares from the other members of the council. "I mean, when did the note say the zerg disappeared first? Almost four years ago. When was the last time we saw any krawl?"

"Also almost four years ago..." I made her point for her. This left us with another thing to ponder. "I wonder if there's some sort of connection between these two..."

Jeena's POV

The brood that found our hiding place was no match for our spectrozerg horde. While their casualties were measured in three digits, ours were limited to seven child-forms as well as two adults. Unfortunately, four of our enemies' overlords managed to escape, each full of units.

That, however, was not our priority at the moment. The Colony was still in ruins and we had to make sure there were as many survivors as possible. The swarm divided into groups of ten to search through the ruins, looking for anything that moved. If it was zerg, kill it. If it was human, carry it to a designated location.

"What was that?" Rallen asked at the sound of a crumbling walkway. He and I clambered down the sides of the building supporting us. A group of miners was stranded on a slowly shrinking platform supported by the remnants of an office building. "Hang on! We'll get you out of there in a second."

A pair of Aobruptors, led by a Mutabasar, fluttered to the platform and carried the men to safety, despite their shouts of terror at being carried off by similar creatures to those that just destroyed their homes and jobs.

"Princess of Fallen Stars," a queen reported as it walked up to us. "The swarm has successfully rescued one hundred sixty-three miners, as well as nine hundred fifty-eight office workers, janitorial workers, and assorted other inhabitants of the Colony."

That did not sound promising. The Colony's population was nearly sixteen million last time I checked. "Have the lower tiers been searched yet?" I asked in concern. The Colony is set up in tiers, the top tiers is used for access by starship and aircraft. The next three were designed to be entered by monorail, hovercraft, and dune rollers. The fifty-some-odd tiers beneath those are under the sand and can only be accessed by auto-lift or railcar.

"Our Nydus network has begun their search of the cavernous subterranean city, but it'd nearly impossible to navigate the web of destroyed platforms without some means of flight. The Upper tier's remains, however, make it difficult to get any air units down there," the queen explained.

"Have we found Cyrus yet?" Rallen asked the spidery brood mother.

"No," she replied simply before turning back to me, "If the two of you are worried about this Terran official, then why don't you two search for him yourselves?" Though I did not appreciate her condescending tone, I had to agree with the queen. If we wanted something done right, we needed to do it ourselves.

Prince of Stones's POV

"Perhaps attacking the targets is not the best way of offering your hand in friendship," an injured queen offered her opinion as our overlord fled from Nessa. I took this opportunity to test out the potency of my poison injection system.

Works like a dream... nightmare... whatever.

This left only the important passengers alive onboard the overlord, allowing me to let the other four out of their skeletal cages.

"Finally!" One said in an annoyed, feminine voice. "Those cages are so tiny a child-form would get cramps." The other three joined us moments later.

"Did you really have to put us all in the same cage?" A gruff voice snarled from the shadows. "Mr. Buttkiss over here spent the entire ride flirting with _her_." He pointed a clawed finger at the first beast to emerge from the cage.

"I'm sure you're all aware that we just finished an invasion on the base of the two defectors," I said, ignoring all their complaints about their accomadations.

"Yeah," the self proclaimed best of the bunch smirked sarcastically, "finished it in defeat. It was hilarious watching your zerglings scurry around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off. And then there was that one ultralisk-"

"Point is, you've seen what we're up against," I cut him off, that voice becomes beyond annoying after one complete sentence. "Also you've seen what kind of power could become ours if we play our cards right. We need to get in close, then stab them in the back once we've found out everything we need to defeat the Queen of Blades."

"That's a very vague plan," The chubby one in the corner grumbled, "and is likely to end in failure if any of nearly ten billion things were to happen. I'm not saying I won't go along with it, but my warning stands."

"Don't worry," I replied. "Those two can't see past their own noses most of the time. The rest of the time they misinterpret the little they can see."

There are now FIVE factions involved in this story! NPP, N.T., Prince of Stones, Zerg, and Spectrozerg. I wonder what will happen next! Feel free to make any sort of comment you want, I will likely respond whether it be flame or fave, constructive or rude, critical or humorous, English or otherwise.

We don't own Spectrobes or Starcraft.


	13. Another New Faction

N.T.'s POV

I dropped from the medivac and landed lightly on my feet. The act of landing lightly is almost a constant on desert planets, and this one was very loose-grained, meaning there would be no water until I reached my destination seven clicks away. I immediately began sliding unevenly across the desert's surface, so as not to alert any subterranean creatures to my presence.

I finally reached the once towering city known as the colony only to find it in ruins. I clambered up into a dismembered monorail tunnel and tried to find my way inside, which was a difficult task with debris lying everywhere. A gargantuan cavern stopped my journey cold when I found it. The void was occasionally interrupted by crumbling platforms populated by panicked miners, who I chose to ignore; I didn't think I needed to make my presence known just yet.

A Buzzing noise interrupted my train of thought as a large, infested-looking creature zipped past me and down to the platform nearest my vantage point. I quickly took aim, but waited before firing. This being wasn't acting like regular zerg units, who would travel in packs if at all. I saw the insectoid zerg extend two gigantic carapaced hands to the stranded miners, who reluctantly hopped into the bowl-like extremities before being carried upward by the creature. I leaned over the edge of my little cliff and saw similar pick-ups occurring on platforms as far down as I could see.

I froze as a pebble bounced off my raised visor.

"Hey, Jeena," a masculine voice called above me, "come see this. I think there's somebody over here." The scratchy sound of claws against rock hit my ears just before a feminine voice told the masculine voice that there was nothing on this cliff and he should get his eyes checked. "No, you didn't look," The first voice said in annoyance. "Keep your eye right on the edge of the cliff and then tell me you don't see that shimmer."

Damn it, My cover was blown.

Queen of Blades's POV

"You failed me, Prince," I scowled, looking down at my disciple in immeasurable annoyance. "You didn't even give it your all. You and your secret weapons stayed onboard an overlord during the entire battle. What was even the point of sending the four of you?"

"I will not make the same mistakes again, my Queen," the miserable little grunt apologized. I told him he better not because I'd sensed another, more potent psionic force I could use for the same purposes if the Prince of Stones failed me. "Who might that be?" he asked, worried now for his safety.

"If I tell you, you'll kill her," I said, "and I'm not quite ready for November to end just yet." I could tell by the look on his face that I'd confused him. It's fun to watch the underlings squirm. I dismissed him and told him not to fail me next time, when that time came.

Professor Kate's POV

I sat quietly in my research lab, reading over the information I'd gathered from the past two months. Nothing added up the way anybody wanted it to. Zerg bleed, krawl don't. The zerg couldn't be the krawl, but the Dominion had never heard of the krawl as far as we knew. What happened to Rallen and Jeena? What happened to all those people on Genshi and on Ziba's moons?

My thoughts were interrupted by a whirring noise and a bright blue light. I peered out the window and saw something resembling a golden egg with a pattern of glowing blue lines on it. It was sitting in the middle of a dig site. I rushed outside to get a closer look and found that all the fossils in the area around the egg had been awakened. The child forms were all looking up at the micro-monolith in shock and awe, as was I.

I plopped the spectrobes down on the bench in my lab and set the egg down on my desk. I traced some of the lines with my finger and the object popped open, peeling open in three parts like a banana. Inside was a small red and black sphere that was glowing slightly. I reached in and grabbed it.

_Behold, the Power of the Void. You, terran, are now in the service of Aiur as well as the Crest of the Khala. You are now in control of the Protoss equipment in the capsule before you. You have already discovered the Dark Archonian sphere. Also included is the necessary tool set for the purpose of reviving and controlling the plethora of creatures in your stellar system with technological augmentations. You will find a single warp key in the capsule; provide this with a power source and you will be provided with an assistant in our cause. Go forth and defeat the zerg forces that dare to desecrate this land._

All of a sudden I had no memory of the past minute or so, nor did I remember ever having opened the thing on my desk, but there is sat, open. I only remembered having the sudden urge to reach into the open golden capsule on her desk. Capsule? Hadn't I just been calling it an egg? Whatever. I removed an elliptical golden card from the depths of the capsule and looked at is blankly.

_Give it a power source._

I inserted it into my punch card apparatus used mostly when I wanted to order a new tool. The machine began to glow bright blue and a black sphere replaced the screen. A small electromagnetic pulse arced out of the blackness as a small golden fish-looking thing zoomed into view from the center. The entire light show disappeared, but the small figure remained.

_This is an engineering probe. It cannot construct buildings, but it can assist you in augmenting the fossils with the necessary revival apparatuses._

I kneeled down to get a closer look at the probe. Probe? Nevermind. It hovered slightly above the ground with a low hum. It whistled slightly as it flew in a small spiral around me as I stood up. It brought itself directly in front of my face and blinked its single, mechanical eye. This was going to be interesting. I had to show this to the council.

_Inform nobody of our plans._

Or I could always surprise them later.

This took me WAY too long. I need to find more time in the day.

I do not own Starcraft or Spectrobes.

For those of you who haven't already figured it out, the red and black orb was a Dark Archon's mind control, except it's in a can. Professor Kate is being controlled by a Protoss faction trying to exterminate the Zerg invading the Nanairo system.

I'm always open to criticism, so R&R!


	14. November

Rallen's POV

The shimmer on the cliff suddenly faded into a woman in a white and silver suit as a Vilaseer floated down to help out a group of stranded workers. The woman, knowing she'd been revealed, acrobatically flipped up onto the ledge Jeena and I were standing on and pulled a knife on the two of us.

"So you're the leaders of this zerg infestation!" the strange woman accused. She jabbed the knife forward, but Jeena managed to leap out of the way and cling to the wall behind her. I sent the usual thought message that would ordinarily pull out my Pepe Sword. My entire right forearm morphed into the right wing of a Pepethrax. I'd gotten used to these kinds of surprises, so I just rolled with it and aimed my wing threateningly at the woman.

"Wait!" Jeena shouted to the woman, who'd spun around and aimed a ling blaster of some sort at my head. "I don't think we're the ones you're looking for."

The woman, Jeena, and I climbed back up to the surface, above the ruined colony, and situated ourselves somewhere off the Luminous Creep (that's the name Jeena decided on the Creep produced by the ruin-structures that spectrobe-drones build) to have a calm conversation about our present situation.

"Why the hell should I believe a zerg?" The woman grunted when Jeena finished briefly explaining our situation.

"Because we don't have any zerg forces," I said in agitation. "Because we're presently trying to rescue the inhabitants of the colony the _REAL_ zerg brood destroyed. Because we're not trying to kill or infest you."

Jeena gave me the "shut up" look, so I stopped giving perfectly logical reasons for why we were who we said we were. She then turned to our oddly dressed guest, "I apologize for my partner's less than agreeable attitude. Let's try to redo this whole mess of an introduction. I'm Jeena, and this is my partner, Rallen. We're former Nanairo Planetary Patrol officers. You are?"

"My name's November Terra, you can call me Nova" The woman in white explained. "My business isn't important, and I don't have a past."

After a _lot_ of explaining, We told Nova our entire story since the zerg arrived, and she said almost nothing except that she was here to help.

"You can start by helping us evacuate the colony. The entire structure collapsed, so we can't airlift the trapped people in the lower tiers. If each of us three takes a different route down, we can have our Nidus network get them to safety," Jeena explained. Perhaps this section should have been in her POV since I barely did anything of great importance.

Prince of Stones's POV

Since my latest blunder on Nessa, My Queen has assigned me a long series of dauntingly simple tasks (until now). Now she's finally given me an off-world task. I am to set up a second colony _inside_ of Ziba so that we may take it over from the inside out. I originally thought this to be an insane idea, but then I recalled that Ziba is split in half. The center of this split would be a perfect place for a base to rise.

Taking only seven drones and my four pets, as the Queen called them, I departed for Ziba on an overlord. Jumping into hyperspace, we managed to avoid detection by the NPP and bypass the dangerous magnetic field encircling the planet and its moons. We landed safely in the planet's solid interior, and I immediately commanded the drones to scout around for a suitable mineral field to build a hatchery by. Not ten minutes later, I was sent a psionic message by one of the drones saying it had found a large cluster of mineral fields. I set up a mental link to its sight and saw something I'd only heard about from My Queen. I saw a Protoss Nexus.

The other drones, my creations, and I quickly made our way to where the other drone was scouting. I looked over the group of Protoss structures standing tall over thirteen mineral fields and three vespene geysers. There was, however, something different about these structures from the mental images The Queen of Blades had shown me. I seemed to remember Protus structures being made of gold and containing all sorts of hyperspace gateways. These buildings were closed brick structures with red, green, and blue lines and shapes covering their walls and decorations.

There was no more time to waste. I had to create this new base and overtake the Protoss forces before they could get a firm hold on this planet and stop the infestation of this system. I looked up and saw a mineral field some distance from our present location on the opposite face of the planet's interior. I assumed that gravity wouldn't function the same way in the center of a magnetic planet, so I jumped with all my leg strength up towards the other face. Mid-jump, I spun 180 degrees so that my feet were facing the other half of Ziba. I landed safely on the other side of the quarter-mile gap between the planets. This is the kind of thing that makes me grateful for my powerful zerg body. A human could never have made that jump.

Commander Grant's POV

Our fleet hovered over Nessa's sandy surface, poised to attack. Our scouts had recently discovered a pile of ruble on Nessa where the Colony once stood, and an army of zerg forces had gathered around the ruins. The only reason our ships were not told to attack on sight was the fact that the swarm was providing aid for the trapped miners, rather than killing them on sight, as had been our previous experience with the zerg.

"Attention unidentified Zerg faction," our flagship's captain shouted through his interior-to-exterior communicator, "you are trespassing on human territory. Leave immediately and we will not use force. Any violent actions on your part will be met in kind." I considered informing this captain that the entire star system was human territory, but I let it slide, as I knew he would reply with some pompous remark as usual.

A gigantic beetle with two unusually large claws hanging below its torso fluttered into view. It landed on the nose of our war cruiser (a much more aggressive version of a patrol cruiser) and two humanoid figures hopped off its back. The captain called for all turrets to be locked and ready if these three became hostile.

"Nice to see you too, Captain Hurshell," one of the two smaller beings said as it walked up to the window. As this figure came closer, his features were revealed. He had bright orange hair that was parted at the front, he had a massive right arm that emitted a glow from the wrist, and his lips were pulled back in a ridiculously cocky grin. "Is the Commander onboard?"

"Rallen?" Hurshell and I exclaimed simultaneously.

"Can you let us in?" the other figure, who we couldn't see as it had not stepped forward, asked. "It's really cold up here."

The two people met me just outside the decompression chambers, where they'd been let in, and I led them to the interrogation room (keep in mind, this is a police ship). I still didn't recognize the strange girl with Rallen. She had yellow hair pulled up in a ponytail and was wearing an odd white jumpsuit with silvery metal armor covering her in necessary locations. She also had a pair of primitive-looking night-vision goggles resting on her head. I sat down across the table from them and asked the first question that came to mind. "What's your connection to the main Zerg force?"

"That's a nice, warm welcome after all that time," Rallen said indignantly.

The woman ignored her associate and informed me, "This swarm is the primary brood's secondary enemy in this system. Their primary enemy is the NPP, who I assume you are in charge of."

"Interesting… and who, exactly, are you?" I asked skeptically.

"I am November Terra, Ghost operative. I am the only aid the Dominion will be sending to this system."

"Oh, so you're N.T.," I said, making the connection, "well, I would welcome you aboard our ship, but there are still quite a few things I need to ask you." She just nodded and I asked my next question. "In this note you left us, you said the Dominion did not want to assist us any further because we were obviously associated with the 'Protoss.' Not one member of the NPP had any idea of who the Protoss were when we asked around. Who are they and why does their existence negatively affect our relationship with the other humans in the universe?"

"I have no memory of any note," she simply replied. I slid the slip of paper across the table. "That is my handwriting, and that is my signature, but I do not have any memory of writing this note." Both Rallen and I looked at her strangely, probably for different reasons. "Perhaps I should explain. Ghost operatives are Special Forces units that are trained thoroughly since a very young age to be powerful psionic warriors. Once our training is complete, we begin our missions. After each mission is completed, we have our memory erased back to the point of completing our training. I may well have written that note in a previous mission, but I do not remember it."

"Why are you telling him all this? You told us you couldn't explain any further," Rallen asked November.

"This man is of a higher authority than you because he has authority _over_ you. Besides, I did not tell any specific details. These sorts of things are common knowledge in the Koprulu Sector," She replied in the same matter-of-fact tone he'd been using the whole time. I could tell this briefing would go by pretty quickly If I stuck with asking November the questions, as to avoid Rallen's sarcasm.

Bluh Bluh just derpin' around with crossovers, bluh bluh

I don't own either Spectrobes or StarCraft


End file.
